Fatal Attraction
by MysteryGal5
Summary: Natasha didn't expect Steve to fall in love with her / Steve soon learns the consequences of falling for her. (RomaRogers / College AU / OS)


**What better day to publish this than my 7th anniversary on this site? Happy birthday to me.**

**I would like to give a huge thanks to ****BewareTheFandom**** for blessing my RomaRogers heart with this adorable idea.**

**As per usual, I do not own the characters. If I did, even though I ship Steggy and Clintasha more, I would've written a RomaRogers ending in the MCU. (This is another story of my _Endgame _catharsis without even seeing the movie).**

**Enjoy :)**

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Fatal Attraction:

There are textbooks and training weapons scattered across any flat surface. Even the floor fell victim to Hurricane Natasha.

Natasha cranes her legs and walks on her tiptoes, stepping on any empty space no matter the size. For some reason, she holds her breath as if she walks across a minefield. _But she expects to set off a dummy grenade. Those are lying around somewhere in the chaos. She has to be on edge because anything could explode in her face._

At least SHIELD Academy taught her how to react to unexpected explosions: respond. No top agent would cower because they'll know how to survive.

Natasha reaches her fridge and opens the door. She makes a mental note to go grocery shopping later today. She settles for a loaf of bread to make a peanut butter and jam sandwich. _It's not like her nearly-empty fridge gave her a lot of options. It was either this or half a carton of beer._

Natasha continues her journey to the toaster. She uses her arm to move her work and make some counter space. She opens the bread package and takes out two slices of bread to put in the toaster. She pushes down the lever, sees the heat turn on, and proceeds to get the plate and condiments.

Then, she hears a knock on the door.

"It's open!" She yells, getting a butterknife for her sandwich.

The door opens in a quick motion, sending a huge gust of wind her way. Natasha's eyes narrow in annoyance as she hears her papers scatter around. Her training weapons and textbooks are not efficient paperweights. She's peeved because, even in the chaos, there was a logic to the mayhem. _Or she liked to tell herself that._

Irritated, Natasha turns to see who dares mess up her mess. Her eyes first see that innocent smile and she tries her hardest not to smirk back because she's mad. But her mouth twitches which make his smile grows more. That's her breaking point.

It's her college classmate who later became her partner. Then, her best friend. And, later on, her boyfriend: Steve Rogers.

Steve walks in, mindful of the mess he helped create. He steps around her stuff to make his way over to her. Typically, he would rearrange everything back to how he found it but he doesn't want to mix it up even more and anger her. He's still in his training uniform with his shield strapped on his back. That means he must have come here straight from class. His breathing is a bit heavier than usual, meaning that he ran up the stairs to get here. _Why was he in such a rush?_

Steve removes his shield from his back and sets it on top of Natasha's clutter on her table. She doesn't complain because at least it shields her procrastination.

Finally, Steve looks at her and feels elated to see her.

"So, what's up?" Natasha asks.

"I have something to tell you," Steve tells her. "It's okay if you don't agree, I want to let you know."

"You could've texted it."

Steve gives her a face. "You know I hate texting. Besides, these unsaid words are the loudest in my mind which is why I need you to hear and not read them. I'd also like an immediate response and to not be left on read."

A small grin forms on the corner of her mouth. "Then say it."

Steve can't get over her bluntness but he loves that about her. _At least she gets to the point._

"I was skeptical at first when Fury paired us together," Steve tells her. "We had different fighting techniques and abilities as well as contrasting morals. At first, I thought we would've never gotten along. I am more old-fashioned and you're modern. I'm a soldier and you're a spy. But after sparring and drinking a few rounds along the way, I grew to you. And you grew onto me as well. It didn't matter where we came from because it's what brought us together. We combined skill sets and techniques. Being different in that way made us better partners on the field and behind closed doors."

Natasha leans against her counter, looking at Steve. She is unsure where this is all going and why he ran up the stairs to give a rundown on their relationship. She knows how it went because _she was there_.

Steve clears his throat. "What I'm getting at is that I love you, Natasha Romanoff."

_And there's the dummy grenade that blows up in her face. She could argue that a warning would have been nice, but he gave that whole speech. That was the timer ticking down and she got distracted by his blue eyes._

Natasha is silent as those three words echo in her head. They pound against her skull, drying out her mouth. She knows that Steve is waiting for a response, preferably those same three words or a similar speech. But she most likely looks spooked. Even if she thought of this as that dummy grenade, SHIELD would tell her to respond and not cower. Being silent is cowering!

_She didn't plan to have him fall in love with her. That wasn't a part of her plan. Wait, she had a plan?_

Natasha looks at Steve and he's still waiting for her to say something. _Anything_. But her mouth is so parched. The longer the silence lingers, the more awkward the moment becomes.

A ding fills her ears, startling her away from her thoughts. Back in reality, Natasha looks at the toaster. She sees in her peripheral vision that Steve is looking at it as well. Then, they both turn back to each other and Natasha can only see his mouth saying, _I love you, Natasha Romanoff_.

_She still hasn't responded. He wanted an immediate response and she has said nothing. The silent treatment is the verbal equivalent of being left on read! The bomb went off and she's cowering!_

"Nat - ?"

Before he could even finish her name, Natasha spins around to build power. She kicks Steve right on the chest, causing him to go flying right out her window. He crashes through, glass shatters everywhere, and he starts falling.

When Natasha's foot rests on the ground again, her eyes face where Steve was once standing. Her mind races. She's in disbelief that she did that even though the glass shards and Steve's sudden absence say different.

Her body acted on instinct before her mind. The _I love you, Natasha Romanoff_ preoccupied her to come up with a rational reaction. Out of everything she could have said or done, she did _that_. At least it was a response: get the bomb out of the environment. _But it already went off so what would that do?_

He was right, though. They were so different. They grew up on different sides of the tracks and happened to meet here. Out of everyone in the Academy, their superiors partnered them up which forced them to bond. She didn't complain about Steve. She never did. She had nothing to pick at. Natasha admired his goodness and his adaptation to the modern world. He showed her the bright side of the life they live, which is why she kept him around as a partner, friend, and boyfriend.

Then, she remembers her toast. The bread is now cold. Putting it back in the toaster would burn it but the microwave would make it soggy. _What a waste of bread. Bread isn't cheap. Add that to the grocery list._

_I love you, Natasha Romanoff._

She kicked the man she loves right out the window because he told her those three words.

And that's when it hits her: he loves her and she loves him. _Why couldn't she just tell him that? It's not that hard, is it? _Well, she couldn't say it now because he's falling to the ground.

That brings a smile to Natasha's face as her heart flutters.

She walks up to her now-broken window, not caring where she steps. Natasha peers over and mentally calculates how fast Steve's falling and how far the ground is. She can't forget to factor in how long he's already been falling. The answer she comes up with changes with every second he's still falling. _She can't waste any more time_. _She didn't plan to fall in love with him and she especially didn't plan for this. The Academy also taught her that you have to save everyone affected by the bomb's explosion, no matter how fatal._

Natasha turns around and sees his shield sitting at her table. At least he left that behind. She sprints over and grabs it. When Natasha returns to the window, she peers over the edge before throwing it down for him. If he doesn't catch it or it knocks him unconscious during the fall, at least he'll know that she tried to save him. In the language of partnership, what happens beyond this point is all on him.

Natasha may not have responded to him the same way, but her gesture is synonymous.

-o-

_He's jumped out of planes at higher altitudes without a parachute. He can definitely survive a fall from Natasha's apartment window._

From when Steve first saw Natasha, he knew that she walked with heaven in her steps but hell in her eyes. As time passed, he realized that no one makes him feel safer yet scared more than her. His friends warned him about his fatal attraction for her but his lust overpowered and turned into love. And now, his attraction for her led to Natasha lacking reason when dealing with her feelings.

Which resulted in him getting kicked out her window. _Not even out the front door, the window._ If he knew that this would happen, he would've taken the elevator on his way up.

This is the fatal attraction his friends warned him about: the attraction towards someone that the individual lacks reason and logic in their thinking when dealing with their feelings.

Was he wrong to confess his love for Natasha? No. He was wrong for doing it at her apartment from that height while she was waiting for toast. _It's now cold and she'll never forgive him now. Bread isn't cheap._

And now her window is broken is because of him. Fury will lose his mind.

_Some boyfriend he is. No wonder she didn't say she loves him back_. _First he ruined her mess, ruined her toast, and ruined her window. She'll never love him back._

"Heads up, Captain!"

Steve snaps out of his thoughts when he hears Natasha's voice screaming at him from her apartment. _Those weren't the three words he was expecting, but it was better than her stunned expression and roundhouse kick_.

Steve looks up and sees his red, white, and blue shield flying towards him at top speed. A loud laugh escapes Steve's mouth as he holds out his arm and allows his weapon to slide on. He screams out of excited adrenaline as he repositions in the air to prepare for the impact on the ground.

He knows it: she loves him. And even if he dies, he can die happy _because_ she loves him back.

Before they're lovers, they're partners. In either relationship, there's the love in the sense that they have the power to destroy each other. But they trust each other not to because it's not what they want.

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**Guys. I enjoyed writing this so much!**

**Thank you so much for reading this! Please leave a review to let me know what you thought. If you have a story idea that you want me to write, do not be afraid to suggest it to me.**

**~ MysteryGal5**


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